


A Moment of Respite

by dweetwise



Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Badass Laurie, Gen, Humor, Laurie hates Myers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:07:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25398175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dweetwise/pseuds/dweetwise
Summary: A frustrated Laurie manages a well-executed pallet stun on both friend and foe. Knocking the killer out for the trial makes repressed feelings surface, but luckily she has a friend to lean on.
Kudos: 23





	A Moment of Respite

**Author's Note:**

> sort of a continuation of my crackfic "lucky break". tumblr request for laurie pallet stunning myers and ace that turned out a lot more angsty than i intended

Laurie mutters a quick curse under her breath, leaping through another window. _Of course_ the killer is her brother, and _of course_ he’s being an obsessed jerkbag, refusing to leave her alone as soon as he spotted her in the trial. She thinks back to one of the matches earlier this week, where a lucky pallet stun somehow knocked a killer out cold. She sees Michael double back on the T-wall she’s looping, and quickly pivots to a nearby pallet.

Shit, she’s out in the open and Michael is stalking her like the infuriating creep he is. Laurie crouches behind some rubble just to spite him, refusing to give him his power even if it means getting hit. If only she could pull off what Ace did to the Spirit…

* * *

_“It’s not WORKING!” Laurie yells in frustration to Ace, seeing the Trapper recover from the perfectly timed stun without faltering._

_“Don’t sweat it, you’ll get it eventually!” Ace tries to encourage her. “Now if you’d help me down—”_

_“Over here, you big brute!!” Laurie taunts the killer, running away from Ace to another pallet with single-minded determination to get the technique right._

_“LAURIE FOR FUCK’S SAKE WOULD YOU UNHOOK ME!?” Ace yells while grappling with the entity’s claws, struggling to keep himself from being sacrificed on the hook._

After Laurie’s countless stun attempts in several trials and her fellow survivors growing annoyed by her selfish actions, Adam had been the one to come up with a decent theory. He’d suggested the one-off incident with the Spirit was probably related to the killer’s power and her going into shock from being forced out of another realm. Which would mean it could never be used on the other killers. 

* * *

Snapping back to the present, Laurie hears Michael’s disgusting heavy breathing approach. It’s just not _fair_! Why does _Ace_ get to be the only one to fight back!? Laurie grits her teeth in frustration and jumps from her hiding spot to slam down the pallet on the killer.

She gets a small bit of satisfaction from hearing the pained grunt from behind the mask, suggesting she landed a stun. She quickly bolts, having no time to waste as Michael always recovers quickly and will surely be able to stalk her enough to get his power-up in case she lingers out in the open. Laurie runs into a jungle gym to block his line of sight, not once looking back.

Laurie positions herself near the pallet, waiting. She didn’t hear Michael break the pallet, which means he’s still on her ass. Sadly she doesn’t have a good vantage point, and with the killer suppressing his terror radius, he could come from any direction. The seconds tick by and she steels herself, ready for an ambush.

As soon as Laurie hears footsteps along the other side of the tiled wall, she slams down the pallet with expert timing, hoping to buy herself enough time to run to the main building _—_

“ _OW_!“ she hears a very distinctly non-killer yelp, snapping her out of her fight-or-flight instincts and causing her to look around, confused.

“A little help here?” she hears Ace’s strained voice and finally spots the man, stuck under the pallet with a pained expression on his features. She goes to lift the pallet, thankful for Yui’s teachings on the subject, eyes darting around trying to spot her brother in case he’s sneaking up on them.

“Hurry up! Where’s Michael!?” Laurie hisses while extending a hand to drag Ace to his feet.

“This is turning out to be an abusive relationship,” Ace weakly jokes while wincing in pain, rubbing his cheek that seems to have taken the brunt of the impact from the pallet, a bruise forming on the flesh.

“Ace! Where’s _—_ ” Laurie demands.

“Shh, let me show you!” Ace grins, wincing slightly from the action, motioning for Laurie to follow him. Laurie is about to protest, but seeing as she basically just assaulted the man, she decides the least she can do is humor him.

“I gotta admit, I didn’t think we could pull it off again. But hey, all that practice you did must’ve finally paid off,” Ace quips while leading Laurie towards the pallet she camped earlier.

“You mean _—_!?” Laurie gasps. Could it be? Did she actually manage to do it!? She sprints the last couple of ten feet, coming to a halt in front of the pallet. She feels relief flood through her; next to the pallet, in an inelegant pile of sprawled out limbs, lies her brother, the bane of her existence, completely subdued and knocked out cold.

“Congrats, Laurie; you did it!” Ace cheers, coming up beside her. “I saw him go down and wanted to tell you right away, and _—_ well, then I ate a pallet myself,” Ace chuckles.

“Sorry about that,” Laurie mutters, embarrassed by her skittish reflexes.

“Eh, I’ve had worse,” Ace jokes good-naturedly and Laurie gives a small smile before shifting her attention back to the killer.

Looking at his motionless body, he looks like a regular human. He doesn’t look like the monster that has stalked her for years, killing her friends and ruining her life, before coming into this realm and doing it all over again, following her and killing her, choking and stabbing, again and again _—_

“So… did you want to prank him, or…?” Ace asks nonchalantly, interrupting her dark thoughts. Laurie bites her lip to suppress a relieved sob. She did it. She finally did it, and Michael isn’t hurting anyone, at least not this trial, she can finally _breathe_ and her friends are _safe._

Ace huffs out a surprised ‘oof’ as Laurie crashes into his chest, grabbing handfuls of his ugly pink sweater and choking out a few quiet sobs into the fabric.

“Thank you,” Laurie starts, the sound muffled by Ace’s shirt.

“Hey, this was all you!” Ace quips cheerfully, encouragingly patting her on the back.

“ _—_ For giving me back some control over my life. _Thank you_ ,” she whispers. She feels her hands start shaking, cursing herself for being so vulnerable. Ace seems to hesitate, before placing a warm hand over her trembling fists and wrapping the other around her shoulders in an awkward half-hug.

“Anytime,” he says softly, without any undertones of humor for once. 

Laurie appreciates the gesture, thankful for the strange turn of events that has allowed her to get a tiny bit of justice in her messed up life. She feels incredible gratitude for her friends, supportive enough to hold her during a breakdown in the middle of a trial with the unconscious body of her psychotic brother laying not even two feet away. Laurie feels the helplessness give way to courage, wiping at her tears with a familiar fire burning in her veins.

”Ready to move along?” Ace asks, tactfully giving her some space to pull herself back together.

“Ready to kick some ass,” Laurie corrects, fierce and determined and ready to do whatever it takes to keep her friends safe.


End file.
